The Good War, a new musical by David H. Bell and Craig Carnelia, inspired by the book by Studs Terkel, will see its world premiere by Northlight Theatre, the Skokie, Illinois, not-for-profit, in spring 2004.

The resident troupe staged the first production of Jason Robert Brown's The Last 5 Years two season ago. The Good War, announced as part of the 2003-04 season, is still being developed by the creators and a workshop is planned for Chicago this fall.

The show is expected to have songs by Irving Berlin arranged by songwriter Carnelia (Sweet Smell of Success) and book by Carnelia and Bell (The Hot Mikado). Bell will direct and choreograph.

The show is drawn from Studs Terkel's 1984 Pulitzer Prize winning oral history about World War II.

Northlight artistic director BJ Jones, who cooked up the idea with Bell, called the show "a theatrical piece" that is meant to juxtapose stories about the war with classic Berlin songs, offering ironic contrasts. The creators are in talks with the Berlin estate, which recently licensed Berlin songs for a new revue, I Love a Piano, expected to tour in 2004-05.

The Good War is the third in Northlight's series of Selma Melvoin New Play Commissions. Performances May 12-June 20, 2004. Opening is May 19. The season also includes the regional premiere of Mitch Albom and Jeffrey Hatcher's Tuesdays With Morrie, with local favorites Mike Nussbaum and Tracy Letts, Oct. 8-Nov. 16. Northlight also has the Midwest premieres of Cookin' at the Cookery, the musical tale of the late blues singer Alberta Hunter (starring Ann Duquesnay),written and directed by Marion J. Caffey; and Joe Penhall's London play about mental illness and health care folk, Blue/Orange (with BJ Jones, Jan. 28-March 7, 2004). Oscar Wilde's 1892 comedy, Lady Windermere's Fan, is also part of the slate, March 17 April 25, 2004.